Saturday 31 October 2009 20.05 EDT
First published on Saturday 31 October 2009 20.05 EDT

Why cleaning ladies?

I came to Austria about nine years ago to study and when I introduced myself to someone and told them I was from Poland they'd say: "Oh, that's nice, I've got a Polish cleaning lady." They didn't know anything else about the country. I thought that in Vienna especially, there must be hundreds of women cleaning the apartments of rich people. So I thought it would be good to see them from a different perspective.

What gave you the idea for the production?

There are two things. One is that the operetta as a form gets quite a bad press, especially in Austria, where it's mostly for old people and is done in a really boring way. And two, cleaning as a profession is thought of in the same way – as second-rate. So I thought, if you put two minuses together it gives a plus. And it definitely does! The simple rules of mathematics.

And did you work as a cleaner once yourself?

Yeah, I did it a bit when I was studying, but it was a disaster! It's really heavy work and you have to know the techniques – they fired me almost straight away.

How did you find your four women?

That was not so easy. We did a casting, but very few women came. I think it's quite clear why: I wouldn't trust an advert that said: "We are looking for cleaning ladies to dance and sing in an operetta" – it sounds a bit strange. But the four women we got opened up and trusted so much, especially in terms of sexuality; for me, operetta is all about sex and I was trying, not in a vulgar way, to capture the sex appeal of these Polish women.

Are they still working as cleaners?

Yes, two of them are – one of them actually got cleaning work in the theatre where we had the premiere in Austria.

What has the reaction to the show been like so far?

They [the cast] couldn't understand why it was such a huge success. In Switzerland, we played very posh places like opera festivals to audiences who'd had such a different life experience, but they loved it. It's very direct and honest and also self-ironic. You cannot talk about certain things without humour; I think that's the reason it's done so well.

• The Merry Widow has two performances at the Chelsea Theatre on 5 November as part of the theatre's Sacred season